"When they make decisions in No 10 they look to see what is said on Guido Fawkes," said our panel. And this will be music to the ears of Staines, a former rightwing lobbyist and rave promoter with the knack of catching any politician (or journalistic rival) with their pants down.

Staines (likes: free market capitalism, Michael Gove, himself; dislikes: the left, Piers Morgan, hypocrisy) started blogging as Guido Fawkes in 2004, and has continued to make waves this year. He published Alastair Campbell's Leveson inquiry evidence before it was delivered and those pictures of Prince Harry before the Sun broke newspaper ranks two days later.

Success with media stories spurred him to launch "Media Guido". As well as this he has a multimillion-pound stake in the social media digital advertising agency MessageSpace, and sells big stories to what he calls the "dead tree press". Not that he minds taking their cash: he also pens a column in the Daily Star Sunday.